Green candidate clarifies position on bowhead hunt

Hello, my name is Johnny Kasudluak.

In the last federal elections on May 2, 2011, I was a candidate for the Green Party in the riding of Abitibi-Baie-James-Nunavik-Eeyou.

The Green Party has many people from all walks of life in the party, from environmentalists, animal rights activists, aboriginal rights activists, and many others with different reasons for why they join the party.

So, to clarify, before I decided to run for the Green Party, I went through their platform. After having gone through their platform, I had two items I disagreed with.

These two were: their stance on the commercial seal hunt, and their stance on whaling, more precisely the aboriginal subsistence bowhead hunt, because they weren’t supported.

Our culture, no matter if it is to rise up, for example economically, I would never say I don’t support.

When I decided to run for office, the Green Party members who I was in contact with and our Quebec region organizer were completely aware of my dissidence on their commercial seal hunt policy and the bowhead hunt policy.

But when a reporter for Nunatsiaq News was asking me questions for the article which ran April 3, 2011, I informed the reporter that I was in support of the bowhead hunt, but this last part got lost somewhere, and it was further re-reported as is, still lost in the reporting in the latest article on the Green Party.

So, this is the reason for writing this piece; because the article implied I had not mentioned my position, which was not accurate, and that I was not further questioned or contacted for this current article.

Thank you for reading.

Johnny Kasudluak
Inukjuak

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